"You saw the way they responded to the hard questions about torture in the
Republican debate in South Carolina. They came up with easy — and
hard-to-defend in a general election campaign — answers. They just played to
the base. They played to, ‘Let’s torture ‘em!’ I mean, they, they didn’t say
that literally, but that was the subliminal message."— NBC’s Andrea Mitchell discussing the Republican presidential candidates
on CNBC’s Tim Russert, June 2.

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Wolf Advises GOP: Go Left

"Arnold Schwarzenegger, your Governor in
California, has become very popular out there by bringing in independents
and moderates, and trying to forge a consensus among Republicans and
Democrats in your state. Shouldn’t the GOP nationally be following that
Arnold Schwarzenegger example in California?"— CNN’s Wolf Blitzer questioning Congressman Duncan Hunter at the June 5
Republican presidential debate.

Ruing Rude Attack on
Hillary

ABC’s Chris Cuomo: "We turn now to
Hillary Clinton. Just as she seems to be cementing her position as
front-runner, here comes Her Way....billed as the book Hillary
Clinton does not want you to read....The [Clinton] campaign said it is an
Ambien substitute. They say the book is just a rehash. How do you respond to
that, that your book is a sleeper? It’s all been done before. You only
needed a library card to report this out. Your response?"Co-author Jeff Gerth: "Well, the New York Times chose to put
8,000 words of our book on the cover of the Sunday magazine, and we feel
that their news judgement is better than that of Senator Clinton’s."— ABC’s Good Morning America, June 4.

Run, Al, Run

Co-host Harry Smith: "President Bush getting ready to go to Europe for
the G-8. The folks in the European Union want to do emissions reductions. The
President said yesterday we’re not going to participate....If you were
president, you would have probably signed on?"Former Vice President Al Gore: "Yeah, yeah."Smith: "Do you mind if I-? [holds up a ‘Gore 2008’ pin]...There you go.
You can hold it. [laughter]....Here, let’s see what it looks like." [holds pin
to Gore’s lapel]...All right, all right. Save that in a freeze frame."— Exchange on CBS’s The Early Show, May 30.

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Amnesty, "the Humane
Solution"

"You have the President and Ted Kennedy on the same side trying to compromise
on this bill. You have the polls showing early on that people were behind what
it was fundamentally about. Why did you feel the need to rip a bill like this
down?"
"A majority of Americans want a humane solution. The numbers are in favor of
giving some type of amnesty to these people. Isn’t that the humane solution?
Why are you so adamantly opposed to it?"— ABC’s Chris Cuomo to GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo, an illegal immigration
opponent, on the June 8 Good Morning America.

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Fretting End of Amnesty
Bill

"Tonight, the landmark compromise on
immigration is in big trouble on Capitol Hill. Some senators saying if we
can’t pass this, we can’t pass anything."— ABC’s Charles Gibson introducing World News, June 7.

"Everybody agrees the system is broken, and everybody agrees it desperately
needs to be fixed....You’ve got the extremes on the left and the right
trying to kill the entire bill rather than accept provisions they detest."— NBC’s Chip Reid on the June 7 Nightly News.

"The left and the right opposed it. So you’ve got this polarization that
killed the bill....It makes you wonder, right now, the way things stand, if
our political system is really equipped to attack and solve the big
problems?"— Charles Gibson on ABC’s World News, June 8.

Nope, No Partisanship Here

"Whereas other candidates like to throw red
meat before their audiences, [Senator Barack] Obama is developing a penchant
for hurling cold water at them....Conspicuous candor has been part of
Obama’s campaign since his announcement tour in February."— Time’s Karen Tumulty in an article on Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama, June 11 issue.

"When [former Governor Mitt]
Romney slowed down and focused on a single issue — immigration — at a press
conference in Dover, N.H., the brazen cynicism of his candidacy became
almost embarrassing....There isn’t the slightest hint of courage or
conviction in his stump act."— Time columnist Joe Klein, writing about Republican candidate
Mitt Romney in the same issue.

Bush Starting New Cold War?

"Wolf, ‘The U.S.’s plans to build a missile
defense shield in Europe are arrogant and threaten to usher in a new Cold
War.’ Those are the words of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev....‘The
United States is driving itself into a corner. They’ve lost credibility in
the world,’ unquote. Mikhail Gorbachev. Meantime, President Bush insists the
Cold War’s over....For his part, Putin has accused the U.S. of starting a
new arms race. This is just swell, don’t you think? We’ve got trouble with
Russia now, which we haven’t had for a number of years. The question is
this: Is President Bush reigniting the Cold War with Russia?"— CNN’s Jack Cafferty outlining his "Cafferty File" question for viewers
on The Situation Room, June 6.

No Terrorism, Just Fox News
Plot

"Our third story in the Countdown, from
the mindbending idea that four guys dressed as pizza delivery men were going
to outgun all the soldiers at Fort Dix, to the not-too-thought-out plan to
blow up JFK Airport by lighting a match 40 miles away....The so-called plot
happens to be revealed the day before the second Democratic presidential
debate and as the scandal continues to unfold over the firings of U.S.
attorneys and their replacements by political hacks. The so-called plot is
announced by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, New York, and by
the police chief of New York City, the father of a correspondent for Fox
News Channel."— MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on his Countdown program June 4,
outlining his claimed "Nexus of Politics and Terror," arguing the Bush
administration manipulates news about terror plots for political advantage.

Let’s Egg the Dean’s House

"When it was going this poorly in Vietnam,
Americans were in the streets demanding to be heard. Students were tearing
up college campuses in an effort to head off being sent away to die for
nothing. But not this time — 3,503 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, and
nobody does anything. Everything’s off the table. It’s no wonder the Bush
White House gets away with this stuff."— CNN’s Jack Cafferty on The Situation Room, June 8.

Why Are Republicans So
Mean?

"I recently found out my family came from
Holland without permission in the 1600s. Should we be sent back?"
"Why do you hate Mexicans?"— Reader questions selected by Time magazine to pose to GOP
presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, an opponent of illegal immigration,
June 11 issue.

Dan Rather = Mr. Integrity

"Even critics of Rather would have to admit he
has always stood, firmly and stubbornly, for hard news over fluff and for
integrity in the newsroom."— Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales, June 13 article.

Land of Overworked Peasants

"We work longer hours, we work harder, we work
with fewer breaks than any other industrialized nation on Earth....To put
this in perspective, we work more than medieval peasants used to
work....We’re a country that has no mandated paid vacation whereas the
European Union has a floor of 20 days and vacation champs like France and
Sweden offer 39, 40 paid days."— CNN contributor Polly LaBarre, In the Money, June 9.

Maybe Biased, Maybe Not

"I’m squeezed in with two AP video reporters
from Spain in a room meant for one munchkin....One of the AP reporters says
he believes 9/11 was a Bush administration conspiracy hung on al Qaeda....I
don’t hear the other reporter sound out on the subject, but he never takes
off his Che Guevara T-shirt. Maybe these two will provide unbiased footage
and commentary notwithstanding their personal views — maybe not."— Michael Fumento recounting his experience embedded with NATO forces in
Afghanistan for the WeeklyStandard’s June 11 cover story,
"The Other War."

Hard News Dan vs. Katie the
Tart

"I have nothing against Katie Couric at all.
She’s a very nice person...The mistake was to try to bring the Today
ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up, in hopes of
attracting a younger audience....They changed the set. They changed the
executive producers. They changed the graphics person....[but] the trend
line continues, as I say, dumbing it down, tarting it up."— Ex-CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather critiquing his successor
on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 11.

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I’m a Reporter, Not a
Republican!

"[Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerald]
Connolly has been outspokenly critical of [Democratic candidate and ex-Washington
Post reporter Charlie] Hall’s lack of involvement in the Democratic
Party, even suggesting that he is a closet Republican....The issue
infuriates Hall, who said that he has voted Democrat his whole life."
— May 29 Washington Post story by Bill Turque about the bid by Hall,
a 20-year Post veteran, to win a seat on the Board of Supervisors in
Fairfax County, Virginia. Hall lost.